Darragh Bermingham

I am Jeff Bezos. I own The Washington Post. I bought it in 2013. For $250 million. That's 0.1% of my net worth. A rounding error. A tax strategy. A civic gesture. On Tuesday, we laid off one-third of the newsroom. 300 people. I was not on the call. I had other commitments. The publisher was also not on the call. He had other commitments. HR handled it. HR is very good at handling things. We eliminated the sports section. Sports was not profitable. We eliminated the books section. Books were not profitable. We eliminated every photojournalist. Photos can be licensed. From agencies. That still employ photojournalists. For now. We shrunk the metro desk. From 40 reporters to 12. Washington D.C. only needs 12 reporters. To cover democracy. Dying. In darkness. That's our slogan. "Democracy Dies in Darkness." We added it after the 2016 election. It was very popular. With subscribers. Who are leaving. The Post lost $100 million last year. That's a problem. Not for me. For the people who work there. Worked there. The executive editor announced the cuts. He said we were "repositioning for the future." Repositioning means layoffs. The future means fewer journalists. We closed foreign bureaus. Foreign news is expensive. We canceled the daily podcast. Podcasts require staff. Staff requires salaries. Salaries require revenue. Revenue requires subscribers. Subscribers require trust. Trust requires editorial independence. Editorial independence requires not killing the endorsement of Kamala Harris three weeks before the election. I killed the endorsement. In October. Before the election. Some people said this was because I wanted access to the incoming administration. Some people said this was because Amazon has $2 billion in federal contracts. Some people said this was because I'm building rockets that require government approval. I said it was about "principle." Principle is a word that means many things. To many people. The subscribers left. Hundreds of thousands of them. In weeks. The opinion editor resigned. Publicly. Other journalists resigned. Less publicly. The ones who stayed got laid off. On Tuesday. The same week I donated millions to Melania Trump's inauguration fund. That was a coincidence. A very public coincidence. The same week Amazon announced 16,000 layoffs. That was also a coincidence. A very large coincidence. Someone asked why I don't just fund the Post myself. I could. $100 million is nothing to me. I make that in hours. Sometimes minutes. But that's not how business works. The Post must be "sustainable." Sustainable means profitable. Profitable means fewer journalists. Fewer journalists means less coverage. Less coverage means less accountability. Less accountability means... Well. That's the point. Isn't it? The laid-off staff rallied outside the building. On Wednesday. They held signs. They gave speeches. They talked about "the mission." The mission is journalism. Journalism is expensive. I am the richest man on Earth. Some days. Depending on the stock price. The Post's slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." I'm turning off the lights. One section at a time. One bureau at a time. One photojournalist at a time. 300 people at a time. But the slogan stays. The slogan is good for branding. Someone asked if I care about journalism. I said: "I care deeply about the role of a free press in a democracy." I said that. In a statement. Written by someone who still has a job. The truth is simpler. The Post was a hobby. Hobbies get expensive. Hobbies get complicated. Hobbies require attention. I have rockets. I have retail. I have cloud computing. I have federal contracts. I have relationships to maintain. With the administration. That my newspaper used to cover. Critically. We still cover them. With 12 metro reporters. And no photojournalists. And no sports section. And no books section. And no foreign bureaus. And no daily podcast. And no Harris endorsement. But we have the slogan. Democracy Dies in Darkness. Very inspiring. Very marketable. Very ironic. Anyway, I remain committed to journalism! The statement said so.